Lighting As Communication Honda Wako Building

International motor company Honda had been constructing its new office building in Wako, Japan, and offered Reiko Chikada Lighting Design Inc. an important role as the project's director of exterior and some part of interior lighting. Interior part has two aspects. One is the lighting to communicate with visitors; the products displayed in the entrance hall are given the strongest emphasis to impress people from outside. The other is the lighting to create communication between departments, sections and divisions of the company; the atrium is brightened by a mixture of sources, such as lights from the offices, from the staircase and from the spotlights installed in the ceiling, visualizing the function of the space as an integrated communication center of the organization. As for the exterior, we developed a unique solar-powered fixture for exterior illumination. Each fixture is equipped with a battery that can keep 2.5W output for two days without sunshine. Lamps are programmed to shut down automatically by six hours after turned on. Four white high-luminance LEDs are installed below a solar generating panel suspended 60cm above the ground. The light slightly leaks from the translucent panel's edge and make it visible from the distance. The fixture achieves 55lx illuminance at 0m point, 0.2lx at 0.3m. Expected 10 years in function.